Alex and Aaron Benfield talk about the neighbor next door, Joe Capanna, and the issues they have with him. Also, the neighbor on the other side of them is now selling his house and wants to sell it for less than half of what it was worth.
00:00:10.000We're here talking to Alex Owen and Aaron Benfield here on East 49th Street.
00:00:17.000And how long have y'all lived next door to Mr. Joe Campana?
00:00:22.000We've lived next to him the past six months or so, but our roommate lived here for about two and a half years, and he's been saying the same things about him.
00:00:31.000He pretty much keeps to himself and doesn't bother anybody.
00:00:35.000And you don't even see him that often, do you?
00:00:38.000I hear he must around in the yard from time to time, but I've only actually seen him once.
00:00:44.000We were also told that Mr. Capanna is a Vietnam veteran and that he's fully disabled.
00:00:51.000I'm not sure about fully disabled because I do see him or hear him wrestle around in the back, but I heard he is a vet, but I really don't know much about the stories behind that.
00:01:26.000The front yard's cut, and the house isn't attractive, but it doesn't bother me.
00:01:32.000Well, it's his property, and it's better than him being out on the streets freezing to death or panhandling, or even worse, engaged in criminal activity.
00:01:59.000I mean, I've only been here for six months, but I've been coming over to this house since this guy's lived here, the other roommate, and that's two, three years.
00:02:07.000And I've never heard anything bad about this guy.
00:02:10.000I don't have a problem with him at all.
00:02:11.000Why do you think the city's planning to bulldoze his home?
00:02:14.000Because his house is, I guess it appears ugly to people, and I really think the problem is that the neighbor on the other side is selling his house, and I bet that kind of deflates the price of his house that he wants to sell it for.
00:02:31.000It just says society is too concerned with image, and really, I mean, it's just, image is nothing, you know, and it's all about life and how you feel about things.
00:04:00.000He doesn't bother us, and we don't bother him any.
00:04:04.000I think the whole deal comes down to the neighbors and the property value, because this house doesn't bother anybody besides financial reports.
00:04:18.000So you think that's what it comes down to?
00:04:20.000We heard that it was caused by some neighbors complaining, and we heard that this was all caused by some neighbors complaining.
00:04:27.000It's funny that y'all would mention that.
00:04:29.000There's a for sale sign on the house next door to Mr. Capanas.
00:05:42.000I can remember that he used to have some old cars out there, and this is about a year ago, and the city came out and took them, and they weren't junk cars.
00:05:52.000You know, the doors were still in the cars.
00:05:58.000They just didn't run, and I know he had a couple sitting out in the front, and the city came out and took those, too.
00:06:03.000So, and I think it's one of those image things, again, that we were talking about earlier, but it just didn't look good, and then somebody got mad and took them away, so.
00:07:56.000He's lived here since at least 1959, and we're told he's fully disabled, according to the KI News report.
00:08:03.000Well, Mr. Capan is not here right now, but you can see his home does have some structural problems, but people due to property values in this area on East 49 and some of the other homes that are being sold in this area have filed complaints with the city, and on Tuesday they're coming out here with bulldozers to destroy this structure.
00:08:24.000We haven't heard of any churches or organizations that care to help Mr. Cappana, a veteran.
00:08:29.000We see these movies like Saving Private Ryan or The Thin Red Line, showing you the plight of soldiers in World War II, but no, no, not Mr. Cappana.
00:08:40.000They'd rather make him homeless, throw him out, and then let the social welfare net take care of him.
00:08:45.000Probably cost ten times over time what it would cost to simply fix this structure.
00:08:49.000If we can get in touch with Mr. Cappana, we will...
00:08:52.000Come out here and help shore up his home, no matter what the cost, right here at the Freedom Report.
00:09:01.000Anyone that, you know, it's kind of like you.
00:09:04.000I mean, you put your butt on the line for a lot of people, you know, and a lot of people don't understand that not all the battles are done overseas, you know.
00:09:13.000The biggest battles are done right here.
00:10:27.000Because once they get on your land, they'll find something that's endangered or they'll find something that's wrong and they'll try to get it.
00:10:34.000And he's seen it happen, you know, a lot of rural land.
00:10:38.000He's seen that happen, and so that's why he gave it to me.
00:10:41.000It's all for loving reasons, of course.
00:11:27.000Yeah, well, it's, you know, back in the early history of our country, it seemed more like where, you know, if you own your land, you could do whatever the heck you wanted with it as long as you didn't bother anybody else.
00:11:40.000But now, you know, it's kind of tough, especially when you've got someone saying, okay, I don't know what the problems were, what the issues were.
00:11:52.000You know, were that were brought up, and in all honesty, I don't have any idea if there's any justification.
00:11:58.000You know, from the city standpoint or not, maybe the only thing I can think of that might be reasonable would be a health issue.
00:12:03.000But still, the thing is, is that why not help the guy out?
00:12:10.000I mean, if nothing else, you know, instead of tearing down his house, don't we have enough money?
00:12:16.000In our city to do something like help out one of our neighbors.
00:12:19.000Hey, hey, we'll put him on the float for Veterans Day.
00:12:57.000Well, you know they'll tear it down and then charge him around $14,000 to $20,000 just for tearing it down and then place a lien on his property.
00:13:07.000And the thing is, even if not, what does he have?
00:13:10.000I mean, at that point, there's absolutely nothing here.
00:13:14.000You know, I don't know if, you know, even maybe it's something that the city shouldn't have paid for, but if not, maybe that's a lacking of, you know, of all of our parts, you know, being, you know, just too concerned with their own, you know, issues.
00:13:28.000Maybe it shouldn't have gotten to be like this in the first place.
00:13:31.000Well, he's just been minding his own business, and now part of his house is in deep trouble, and we certainly hope somebody does come in here.
00:13:52.000If you ever find yourself with the opportunity to speak in front of people, whether it's stand-up comedy, whether it's your own show, radio show, TV show, if you have a chance to open your mouth.
00:14:05.000Speak your mind, tell the truth, don't be scared, okay?
00:14:22.000There's more of us than there are them, and if we all just said, no, we're not going to put up with it, no, you're not going to do this to us anymore, they can't.
00:14:59.000Now you say, and I'm glad that you came out to talk to us, so I want to thank you for that.
00:15:04.000You're saying that the city's been harassing you for 20 years?
00:15:08.000Yes, they have, since 77 about the matter.
00:15:12.000And it's here under other, and it has to prove injury before other can be overridden by the city.
00:15:20.000It's been out of their jurisdiction all that time, and they've been offending constitutional provisions every time they find me about the matter.
00:15:27.000And now they seized my property, they took it falsely.
00:17:18.000So, they've been harassing you for 20 years.
00:17:21.000You've lived here since 1959, and now they've seized your property by saying that you caused damage to others, but nobody else lives there.
00:20:10.000The reference here in town was Ritter, and he didn't want to handle that, so he gave it to Lee, his assistant.
00:20:18.000And it's in the report I turned into the city, and I gave the radio program that you heard about last night, 42, time 42. I gave them a copy of...
00:20:32.000The report made to the Attorney General and the FBI and the city.
00:27:59.000- Look at the plexa, I'm getting shot with them.
00:28:04.000- Look at the plexa, I'm getting shot with them. - He's got pictures I'm getting shot with them. - He's got pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
00:28:34.000- Oh, hold on. - If you want to turn it to the panel.
00:31:23.000It's a nice state with a nice climate most of the year around.
00:31:27.000There's only a couple of weeks in the summer that's 110 in the shade, and there's only a couple of weeks in the winter that it's severe cold without freezing.
00:31:45.000It's my liberty, my freedom, and my pursuit of happiness, and all my constitutional rights.
00:31:51.000And I like it here because we're not in a tornado path, and the climate here is safe on the map.
00:31:58.000If you look at all the disasters on the map, I'm sitting about the safest place, other than these aircrafts that are flying over, that you could pick on the map to avoid natural disasters.
00:32:19.000Now, you were part of the D-Day invasion.
00:32:22.000Could you tell us a little bit about the trauma that that created and also your military full disabilities that you got and how you feel safe here?
00:32:35.000You were talking about being against the government and doing things wrong.
00:32:42.000One thing that created my disability worse was I was railroaded in California trying to see about a job 20th century after talking to LaFonto at the KTBC when I was going to professional radio and television school at Spears Professional Radio and Television School.
00:33:02.000I was falsely arrested and I was kept till Saturday.
00:33:35.000What happened in the meantime was I come out of there droggy with nothing more as eating bread and water since Friday morning, and I missed getting onto the Los Angeles Freeway to Long Beach where I lived, you know, when I was over there seeing about a job.
00:33:52.000And I didn't get to phone my folks because I thought I would go down the freeway the other direction.
00:34:02.000Take the next cloverleaf off of it and return, you know, across the business.
00:34:17.000All right, but the point was, under Goodwin 39th, the total turnistic seizure of me and railroading of me ended me up in Camarillo where they gave me shock treatment.
00:34:27.000And I had to escape the swamp until I died.
00:37:59.000They had enlisted men unloading the trucks with the supplies, and the officers and the top sergeants were in a round of...
00:38:08.000We had a bomb fire and they didn't let the workers come into the fire.
00:38:17.000We were in a blizzard at that time and the trucks were stuck in the mud through to their axle and it couldn't move them so we had to unload them.
00:38:27.000When the weather was too severe, they kind of let our work go, so we took some blankets and stuff and crawled in with the artillery and dug out.
00:38:37.000They lined with empty shell cases and we had some blankets, and we had the blankets, cardboard from the sea rations and blankets over the shells.
00:47:50.000There's still some good people in this country.
00:47:52.000And to see this old man who's fought in a war in World War II, one of the biggest, you know, for us to come out here and help him is really great, you know.
00:48:21.000I just think it's interesting that they treat prisoners with more respect and care more about their rights and their concerns and their health issues than people that are retired and disabled and veterans of foreign wars.
00:48:34.000You have to remember, criminals are important to wreak havoc.
00:48:37.000Yeah, that's part of order out of chaos.
00:48:39.000If they'd lock them up and said, letting them go, we wouldn't have the problems we have today, and we wouldn't need this huge police force.
00:49:15.000Hey, we appreciate you coming out and supporting us in what we're doing and hoping to get him out of that dangerous structure and get him into this new one.
00:49:23.000Well, that's the same thing the city tried to do before, and, you know, he refused to let them build one before some time ago.
00:49:36.000People are taking this opportunity to help their neighbors.
00:49:40.000He has a letter that he actually was offered that, and then it seems that that person that offered it to him from the city was no longer there.
00:54:24.000Now, you had mentioned you wanted to keep this house up as long as the airplanes keep flying over.
00:54:29.000You are aware that this airport, Robert Miller Airport, is going to completely close down in 15 weeks.
00:54:35.000They're going to put state office buildings out there, and there won't be any airplanes flowing over in this neighborhood in about 15 weeks.
00:54:40.000Well, that'll improve the value of the property.
00:54:47.000...that they're interested in your property.
00:54:49.000They're running off with plans, telling us we better not build.
00:54:52.000And now the council member comes out, they say it's fine, we're allowed to do this.
00:54:56.000And we're doing it according to permits.
00:54:57.000That's what I said this morning, Jim, is that we've constructed it, we've built it, but we haven't poured the concrete.
00:55:05.000We've got all the basics ready to go, the foundation ready to go, all the superstructure built, and now it's just like assembling a Lego set.
00:55:13.000All it takes is the permits and we're go.
00:55:15.000Of course, you have no interest in leaving your home of 40 years, right?
00:55:21.000I know the climate's mild, and it's not in a hurricane path, and it's a safe place to live, except the city has aggravated me for 20 years about this matter.
00:56:00.000I could use a little fixing up, but I could see why you wouldn't want your home bulldozed and be run out, and I have to say I'm equally amazed.
00:56:09.000At this construction and the speed of it and the number of people, it's really a groundswell.
00:56:14.000Look what numbers can do when a hundred people working on it.
00:56:19.000Look in one day how much you've got accomplished.
00:56:21.000Well, we've got to thank K.I. and we've got to thank all these people that showed up.
00:56:24.000Yes, I wish to express my eternal gratitude.
00:56:30.000I don't know how to say it other than that.
00:56:33.000But if you have a charity, I'm going to contribute to that.
00:56:37.000Alex Jones and Mike Hansen and Steve Lane just want to get out here and help you.
00:56:41.000And at the same time, showing there's decent people out there, all these veterans, all these families, men, women, children out here working.
01:00:21.000Joe Campana, a disabled World War II and Korea vet, has been here for more than 40 years.
01:00:26.000But the city had told him a couple of years ago he was going to have to move because they said that this home was unsafe.
01:00:32.000Well, when people saw this story on KI and lately heard about it on a radio talk show and cable show, they decided they weren't going to stand by and let this happen.
01:00:40.000So hundreds of volunteers have donated their time and their money, appliances, the siding you see on the house, and this.
01:01:02.000It is a modest cottage, but this place is furnished from top to bottom.
01:01:07.000They've donated furniture, everything in here, all down to the little details.
01:01:12.000Now, we talked to Joe about this gift that Austinites have given him because they care so much about him, and he was very moved by what they did for him.
01:01:43.000This has been, they did this in 13 days, a city record.
01:01:47.000Councilman Lewis said it was a record, the time that they got the permits, but they wanted to make sure that they beat the bulldozers, and Mark, they did.
01:01:54.000All right, Julie, that's a fantastic story.
01:01:56.000Way to have the community get together in such a short period of time.